Chapter [ ]: Data Analysis
Describe an analysis you have recently completed, including strategies and findings. How were the findings used by the business? (This can be from a student research project or thesis if the candidate is a recent graduate.)
Give examples of data cleaning techniques you have used in the past.
Describe a situation where you had to decide between two different types of analyses – and why you chose the one you did.
Why is a comma a bad record separator/delimiter?
What is root cause analysis?
Root cause analysis (RCA) is a method of problem solving used for identifying the root causes of faults or problems. A factor is considered a root cause if removal thereof from the problem-fault-sequence prevents the final undesirable event from recurring; whereas a causal factor is one that affects an event's outcome, but is not a root cause.
Root cause analysis was initially developed to analyze industrial accidents, but is now widely used in other areas, such as healthcare, project management, or software testing.
Here is a useful Root Cause Analysis Toolkit from the state of Minnesota.
Essentially, you can find the root cause of a problem and show the relationship of causes by repeatedly asking the question, "Why?", until you find the root of the problem. This technique is commonly called "5 Whys", although is can be involve more or less than 5 questions.
Source: The Art of Root Cause Analysis
Are you familiar with price optimization, price elasticity, inventory management, competitive intelligence? Give examples.
Those are economics terms that are not frequently asked of Data Scientists but they are useful to know.
Price optimization is the use of mathematical tools to determine how customers will respond to different prices for its products and services through different channels.
Big Data and data mining enables use of personalization for price optimization. Now companies like Amazon can even take optimization further and show different prices to different visitors, based on their history, although there is a strong debate about whether this is fair.
Price elasticity in common usage typically refers to price elasticity of demand, a measure of price sensitivity. It is computed as: Price Elasticity of Demand = % Change in Quantity Demanded / % Change in Price
Similarly, price elasticity of supply is an economics measure that shows how the quantity supplied of a good or service responds to a change in its price.
Inventory management is the overseeing and controlling of the ordering, storage and use of components that a company will use in the production of the items it will sell as well as the overseeing and controlling of quantities of finished products for sale.
Competitive intelligence is the action of defining, gathering, analyzing, and distributing intelligence about products, customers, competitors, and any aspect of the environment needed to support executives and managers making strategic decisions for an organization.
Tools like Google Trends, Alexa, Compete, can be used to determine general trends and analyze your competitors on the web.